Here comes another burst of World War One in the Pacific... Starting with German Samoa.

(Below is the proposed flag)

Germany was granted the territory of Western Samoa in the 1899 Tripartite agreement with the US and UK.

Although not the nicest colonial masters of the island they were far from the worse as well but a study of 1900-14 is not the scope of this thread so moving on...

When the First World War broke out the New Zealand government took on the honour of attacking the islands whilst Australia were to take Deutsche Neu Guinea. The New Zealanders began to gather forces immediately and ships

Much to the Australian Naval commander, R/Adm. George Patey, his forces had to be redeployed from the hunt for von Spee to cover both the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and Australian Expeditionary force invasion fleets.

The simple fact of the matter was that the old P-class cruisers orginally assigned to the force including the NZ controlled HMS Philomel, HMAS Pyramus & Psyche would have been decimated by the Scharnhorst or Gneisenau should they come across the convoy.

The New Zealanders sailed from Auckland and met with Patey's force on 22nd August having had an uneventful journey. They coaled in Suva on the 25th and arrived off Apia (seen below with SMS Falke in harbour before the war) on 29th August

Dr Erich Schultz, the Governor, had no more than 80 constables available to repulse the invasion and it was decided not to fight. Schultz took himself to the wireless transmitter and ordered the technicians to send messages about the attack immediately.

HMAS Physce had sailed into the harbour under a white flag but on hearing the messages HMAS Australia broadcast a cease order from Admiral Patey. Schultz sent a message to the Admiral that although he was not surrendering the island he could not offer any resistance.

As the New Zealanders came ashore they heard several German citizens saying they should fight to the last bullet but they offered no resistence. A detachment of 3rd Aucklands were taken by a Samoan to the Wireless station and took control of it.

In the interim though the technicians had been hard at work ripping wires out of the sets, breaking tools, moving antenna and rigging several home made bombs to the dynamo so that if the occupiers activated it they would be met by an explosion.

Schultz and five other Germans were taken to Fiji as captives whilst troops took control of the Government buildings, offices of Deutsce Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellscahaft der Sudsee Inseln zu Hamburg (the main trading company).

On 30th August Colonel Logan read the official Occupation declaration and the Union Jack was raised over the island. Over the coming days the fleet dispersed and on 2/9/14 the Wireless transmitter was repaired.

As a footnote: News reached von Spee of the fall of Samoa and he turned Scharnhorst & Gneisenau around and sailed 1500 miles towards Apia whilst his other ships sailed on.

On arrival on the 14/9/14 von Spee was disappointed not to catch the Allied warships at anchor where he could wreak havoc. Instead he was met by the rifles of the Aucklanders on the shore. An attack would destroy German property & cost him unnecessary ammunition wastage.

The two cruisers sailed away but were contacted by a German resident on the far side of the island who communicated the strength of the NZEF on the island. Landing Marines would be a futile gesture that would ultimately gain the island German sovereignty for a short time.

The Admiral reluctantly turned his ships around and set course to rendezvous with Nurnberg and the supply ships.
The resident who passed the information was arrested and interned.